Although it was actually the result of a blown transformer, the total of 11 minutes of blackout time during last night’s game between the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys could be seen as a metaphor for the home team’s loss, which broke their five-game winning streak and cast a dark mood over the fans.
But the darkness at the New Meadowlands Stadium was more than a loser’s sulk. Following a 5-6 second partial outage earlier in the third quarter of the game, all of the lights, scoreboards and video board went completely off at 6:12 p.m., causing the game to be stopped for eight more minutes and plunging the stadium into blackness. The outage was attributed to problems with the NJ Sports & Exhibition Authority Substation that serves the complex and resulted in a total of 11 minutes of stopped play.
When the lights came back on, the Giants proceeded to play poorly — though they did score their only two touchdowns of the game after the blackout — according to the team’s official website, Giants.com. The final score: Cowboys 33, Giants 20.
The status of the power grid feeding the $1.6 billion facility, which was completed last spring? New Meadowlands Stadium Chief Executive Officer Mark Lamping told reporters in a press conference after the game that “we’ll determine what the cause was and initiate any remedies necessary to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Last night wasn’t the first power glitch to mar an event at the new stadium, however, though it was by far the longest in duration. At Bon Jovi’s inaugural show last May, the sound cut out for more than 60 seconds. The same thing happened during hip-hop artist Ludacris’ performance in June.
Were any Baristanet readers left in the stadium’s dark last night? Did it worry you, or was it a fitting setting for a sad game?
Photo credit to tedkerwin.